Gesture and posture capturing devices have become very popular as users of consumer electronics devices learn to appreciate the advantages of natural gestures and postures as alternative to traditional user interface. It is understood that for the purpose of the discussion below, reference to gesture may include posture and vice versa.
One type of gesture capturing device is equipped with a content projector so that the display viewed by the user is in a form of a projection surface. The gesture capturing device of this kind is configured to detect a maneuverable object such as the hand of the user in the space between the device and the projection surface.
One of the techniques known in the art for detecting the position and the orientation of the maneuverable object is capturing and analyzing reflections of light (usually invisible) having a predefined pattern. The effectively of the gesture capturing process is dependent on a plurality of parameters such as range and angle between device and projection surface and the hand of the user and other metrics such as the illumination conditions and the intensity of the patterned light. One of the disadvantages of the prior art that the user is not aware of these parameters and cannot know at any given time if the sufficient conditions are met. The aforementioned problem is even worse in patterned light directed at 3D applications since and additional dimension which may also be subject to error is added.
As a result of not meeting the aforementioned conditions, a user who uses a gesture capturing device as an input device may not be able to use the device properly. This scenario undermines the overall user experience in natural user interface systems which are required to be more forgiving and intuitive than traditional user interface.